1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imprint apparatus and a method of manufacturing an article.
2. Description of the Related Art
An imprint apparatus which forms a pattern in an imprint material on a substrate using a mold where a concave-convex pattern has been formed has received attention as one of lithography apparatuses for mass-producing semiconductor devices and the like. The imprint apparatus can form the pattern in the imprint material on the substrate by performing an imprint process of curing the imprint material on the substrate in a state in which the mold and the imprint material are in contact with each other. In such an imprint apparatus, if bubbles remain in the concave portion of the pattern of the mold when bringing the mold and the imprint material into contact with each other, a defect may occur in the pattern formed by the imprint material. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-518207 has proposed a method of reducing bubbles remaining in the concave portion of a pattern of a mold by bringing the mold and an imprint material into contact with each other in a state in which the mold is deformed into a convex shape with its center protruding toward a substrate.
In the imprint apparatus described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-518207, the contact area between the mold and the imprint material is increased gradually by decreasing the deformation amount of the mold gradually after contact between the mold and the imprint material is started. While increasing the contact area, however, the relative positions of the mold and the substrate may change by decreasing a mold deformation gradually. In the imprint apparatus described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-518207, a change in the relative positions of the mold and the substrate is not considered while increasing the contact area. Consequently, it becomes difficult, by the change in the relative positions, to perform alignment between the mold and the substrate quickly, and throughput may be decreased.